A March snow

I’m still not quite used to daylight time again. I keep thinking I can take a photo in the morning before work to use on the blog only to find it’s still too dark for that.  And those longer evenings don’t seem nearly long enough when there are animals to feed first.  However, today a bit of new snow helped the morning look brighter than it really was.

I didn’t get much new snow—the storm was worse to my south—but it was enough to make the roads slick again, especially as I was driving off the mountain.  Once down in the valley the roads were fine.  At least once a week since March began I think that “today” will be the last coldest day of the winter, only to be proven wrong a day or so later.  Winter is losing its grip, as a cold night is now followed by a day or so of warmer temperatures, but just when I think it’s gone, it makes another comeback.

Early migration is underway. I had a dozen tundra swans fly over the cabin this weekend. Yesterday I saw a flock of 32 ring-billed gulls heading north. Believe it or not this is a nearly rare occurrence. Even with all the ponds here on the mountain, I can easily go a year or more without finding any gulls for me year list. I also watched a brown creeper poking around the folds at the base of my largest beech tree.  That’s another first for this year for me.  Those little birds are always around but I don’t see them very often.  They are very secretive little things.

The groundhogs are out, too, though the ones that dig big holes on the ski slopes in summer are still underground. Off the slopes where the snow is largely melted is where I've seen them.  The ponds have a bit of open water, though still not much. The season is changing but there's a long way to go before winter's last gasp.